Imagine my despair as I find that two of the most well respected and talented footballers currently plying their fabulous craft in Europe are linked with a high profile move to Stamford Bridge. When oh when are modern day footballers going to finally wise up and realise that a move to a club that are simply going nowhere could spell the end to their otherwise promising and successful career.

Chelsea to put it mildly are a club without class. The little respect that was earned by a hard working and loyal management has now departed with the Special One and Chelsea are scrambling to maintain the illusion that they are now world beaters on a par with the likes of Barcelona and AC Milan.
(more…)

During a lengthy lay off after my shoulder operation I took a back seat in the footballing world. I have listened and read what football pundits, the newspapers, rival supporters and indeed fellow supporters had to say about my team, Chelsea. Without a shadow of doubt I have never seen so much rubbish spoken and written about our Club. We’re in a Crisis! What Crisis?
(more…)

Flicking through the Sun this morning I suddenly realised that Chelsea are the new Manchester United. Remember in the 1990’s when if you didn’t support Man Utd then you hated them. Basically you didn’t mind who beat them as long as someone did. Now most football fans think the same of Chelsea and I’m left wondering what exactly has brought this sea change in opinion.

I personally believe that it all started when the Russian tycoon took over thereby changing the face of the club. Suddenly Chelsea had money and were willing to spend it. Ranieri began to piece a squad together and the team started to progress in quality and support. The media jumped on the band wagon and started to promise that big things lay in Chelsea’s future and as a club they were really going somewhere. All that excitement and optimism and the Stamford Bridge faithful couldn’t believe their luck, all those years of support had finally paid off and they even dared to dream of a premiership title.

Where did it all go wrong? Fast forward a number of years and Chelsea are on everyone’s most hated list. The manager is unlikable, arrogant and cocky, the never ending money tree that is Roman Abramovich has got tiring and even top class players in the team can’t change the fact that Man Utd are simply in better form this season. When I pondered this situation I began to wonder what exactly caused this to happen? Is it simply jealousy as Chelsea fans would have you believe, is it the media who continually focus on Chelsea and any shortcomings there maybe or is it that people are disappointed in the modern game which Chelsea encompass.

I have said before that if a rich sugar daddy approached my team I would be gutted as I believe they draw the very lifeblood out of the game and for me personally thats why I don’t like Chelsea at the moment. The media may cling to something Mourinho says and blow it all out of proportion as they have done in the past but is this the only reason why people don’t like the man. Or is his aloof attitude? The problem is Mourinho is a character and a character will always draw attention from the media and if he didn’t want it that way then he shouldn’t play up to them so often with his outbursts. Last week I wrote an article in which I believe Jose would walk after this season if he didn’t lift the title and I stick to that. I also affirm my belief that he has been one of the main components in making Chelsea everyones love to hate club in the premiership.

Although I may be being too tough on the special one and it could just be that sucess in a team brings criticism from the masses. I remember back to the late 1990’s when I worked in a Sports Shop and you couldn’t have found a Chelsea top if you tried and now when I walk in its wall to wall Chelsea from training tops to tracksuits. Therefore Chelsea could be hated for the fact that their success has meant that many have jumped on the blues bandwagon and most Chelsea fans are now viewed as glory hunters. This must sting the loyal support who were pre-Abramovich but its something that they must accept as along with money and success there are always those who want a piece of the glory.

It seems that the answer has to come to me as a write this article as Abramovich seems to be in the centre of any reason I can think of for why Chelsea have become so disliked with football fans all over the country. Fans feel that Chelsea have bought the title and bought their recent run of success and therefore everyone wants to see them fail to prove that teams can beat them without the financial backing of a tycoon. There are many reasons which culminate in Chelsea being the most hated club in the premiership but it seems that Mr Abramovich is the catalyst for them all.

It seems that Chelsea’s relationship with the FA has become somewhat strained over the past few seasons due to dramas such as the Ashley Cole saga and Mourinho’s outbursts. Now it cannot be said that I am a fan of many of the decisions taken by the FA in the past and they have not failed to disappoint me again concerning the John Terry incident.

For those of you who don’t remember John Terry was sent off in the match against Spurs on the 5th November but the Chelsea and England Captain claimed that Graham Poll had given conflicting reasons for sending him off. In the wake of the match there were alleged reports that Poll had made certain remarks suggesting that Chelsea need to be taught a lesson. Terry at the time was extremely vexed and indeed was adamant that Poll had made these comments.

Its now a mere two months on and here we are with Terry now having pleaded guilty to a charge of improper conduct and receiving his sentence. This is where I start to laugh as the FA have simply fined the player £10,000.00 and despite having the authority to suspend him they have decided that the fine is enough. Now how can the governing body seriously believe that this paltry fine represents enough of a deterrent from the same situation occurring in the future. This decision proves that players who publicly condemn the decisions of officials and in this case fabricate stories against them can escape with a light rap on the knuckles. £10,000.00 to these modern day footballers means nothing.

A disciplinary representative has issued a statement which reads “Whilst noting the excellent previous disciplinary record of John Terry, we were extremely disappointed that the integrity of the referee Graham Poll had been called into question, and that no public apology had been forthcoming”. It seems that John Terry’s previous good conduct is the main reason behind escaping a suspension in this matter. Maybe the threat of receiving a heftier fine and a possible suspension in the future will go some way in ensuring that the Blues Captain does not lead the charge around the referee when a decision doesn’t go his way as has become the case with Chelsea.

There was a time in the not too distant past when the transfer window would have filled me with hope, expectation and that feeling of nervous excitement that usually means a broken F4 key on your keyboard and far too much time spent on football messageboards waiting for In The Know’s to post their ever so secret scraps from football’s top tables as transfers were secretly wheeled and dealed behind not quite closed doors.

These days it leaves me cold and bored which is probably more a consequence of Spurs traditional lack of imagination in the transfer market (more of a last minute trolley dash to the bargain bins than a carefully planned strategy) but mostly because of the tabloid newspapers.

Pre-internet I lived for The Sun, The Mirror and Daily Star, for the tidbits they fed us about potential signings and the supposed top secret deals they were able to let us know about. These days I don’t waste my time or money on them as it’s become plainly obvious that they’ve developed a Random Transfer Rumour Generator and just let it run over the transfer window with no need for truth or accountability to get in the way of making up rumours to satisfy the lustful demands of mugs like the rest of us who just can’t help dreaming about our clubs landing the big metaphorical fish.
(more…)

It really is only a matter of time before “the special one” receives his marching orders, that’s if he doesn’t do the honourable thing and leave on his own accord before then. His tenure at Chelsea has been filled with controversy not to mention FA intervention and if the Blues fail to lift the title this season then I feel its game over for Mourinho.

The man has brought two back to back titles to Stamford Bridge but it seems that his seemingly unbeatable elite gang of players are starting to come apart at the seams. What exactly is it that has went wrong for Mourinho though? Is it his fall out with Abramovich that is interfering with the morale of the players? Is it his rather large mouth which is prone to outbursts which attract criticism from the rest of the footballing world? Or is it, despite having one of the largest cash reserves in modern day football, he has simply failed to purchase quality players that can fit into the club?

Lets look at the bare facts. Mourninho has paid some hefty transfer fees not to mention wages for super flops such as Wright-Philips, Shevchenko, Kalou, Kezman, Del Horno, Ballack and the list goes on. These players have failed to achieve a portion of their potential whilst at Chelsea and therefore it raises the question of what went wrong? Personally I believe that a good deal of the blame must rest on the shoulders of Mourinho. His public criticism of Shevchenko was full of childlike petulance and although I’m not advocating the Arsene Wenger “my players are perfect” school of thought I do think that he went too far in his condemnations of the Ukrainian star and that his managerial integrity has been undermined as a result.
(more…)

In possibly the most misguided piece of football manager complaining since Arsene Wenger first “didn’t see” an incident, Jose Mourinho has walked straight into the kind of shitstorm we’ve become all too used to seeing build up around the manager formerly known as The Special One (and more commonly known these days as Jose the Arse.)

I’m not defending Andy Johnson or his morals when it comes to penalty box tumbles whatsoever but to come out with some of the most hypocritical statements of the season when skirting the issue, calling him an intelligent player then not an intelligent player and generally not having the balls to just come out and say that he thought Johnson was a diving cheat, Mourinho finds himself in the middle of yet another petty squabble, in line for another FA charge and yet another reason for fans of all clubs (including his own) to get even more bored with the most boring “Special” manager in English football.

Everton want a retraction, Johnson’s agent is talking about defamation (let’s not get too carried away now, saying Johnson doesn’t dive is like saying Drogba doesn’t dive) and there are murmurs of the FA sticking their nose in again. Seems like Jose needed to come up with anything to distract from the hole John Terry’s absence left in the Chelsea defence and, if so, it’s three points and diversion succeeded for Matalan’s most famous coat wearer.

The epic saga between Mourinho and Shevchenko continues this week with Mourinho claiming that although he has nine “untouchables” in his current squad the Ukrainian star is not one of them. The Special One states that although Sheva is a friend of Abramovich the Russian tycoon has not instructed Mourinho to play him and indeed does not interfere with the team selection. This begs a serious question for Sheva as he is continually being undermined in the English press by the club. We must remember that he has proven his footballing ability at the highest tier when with Milan but now is suffering from what can only be called a persecution from Chelsea.

I’m left pondering who the nine untouchable players are and if maybe this is the problem with integrating world class footballers into the Chelsea team. I discussed this problem in my article last week and it is a question I would pose again, why exactly do players fail when they put on that Chelsea blue shirt? Is it the manager, is the owner or is it the team? Mourinho’s comments would suggest to me that the problems lie with the team because Mourinho has confirmed that certain members cannot and will not be removed from the first team and that their names will be on the match card week in week out.

Lampard, Terry, Robben etc etc are the obvious players the mighty one is referring too and I’m wondering why Mourinho picks them for every game they are available. Is this a healthy team building ethic when young players and top class players who have not started their Chelsea career with all guns blazing feel they cannot break through no matter how hard they try? I think its a dangerous statement from Mourinho as it reinforces what I have feared all along, find something that works and stick with it, when its faltering stick with it and when Man United are running away with the title in December, stick with it. Not good Jose, not good at all!

His words have just proven that for any young up and coming star or indeed any international performer a move to Chelsea could just mean the death of your career!

What is it about Chelsea these days? They seem to be destroying the talents of numerous footballers year in year out and nobody is talking about it. Firstly we have Shaun Wright-Phillips one of Englands up and coming youngsters who can’t be touched in the Premiership yet when he makes his “dream” move to Chelsea he disappears off all radar. Is it reaching your peak too early or it just that Chelsea as a team tend to push footballers out of all recognition unless they make a big impact in the squad at the beginning. God knows if your a fans favourite like Lampard then you can be assured of a starting place each week.
(more…)

Don’t you just hate the way those disgusting foreigners come into our game and ruin it with their pretend card waving, their cynical fouling and their overly theatrical comedy diving routines? Wasn’t everything much better back in the good old days while the sixties were swinging and the seventies were all glammed up and football in the UK was a man’s game were everyone welcomed Chopper Harris and Norman Hunter’s cynical fouling and tubby maestro Franny Lee perfected the art of avoiding challenges but still throwing himself to the ground as if he’d been caught by a stray round from the grassy knoll. Glory days, halcyon days in fact and a bygone era we’ll never be able to return to now these cheating foreigners have taken over the game.
(more…)